


Cursed are the Peacemakers

by Seaglassandstars



Series: The Cursed Shall Inherit the Earth AU [2]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Antarctic Empire, Gen, Set During the Exile Era, They/Them Pronouns for Eret (Video Blogging RPF), Time Travelling Karl Jacobs, Twins Wilbur Soot & Technoblade, Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, Wilbur Soot is Floris | Fundy's Parent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:55:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29183613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seaglassandstars/pseuds/Seaglassandstars
Summary: The royal family of the Antarctic Empire used to be strong— not because of their magic, but because of their bond. But years have passed, and this bond has been weakened by secrets and betrayals and a certain masked man who knows how to twist fate.Fundy has watched his family fracture over the years and believes the gods his family used to talk about have all deserted them. A few curses, a couple more blessings, and one royally screwed up timeline later, he just might be able to put his family back together. After all, the gods don't desert their champions.
Relationships: Floris | Fundy & Wilbur Soot, Niki | Nihachu & Wilbur Soot, Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Series: The Cursed Shall Inherit the Earth AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2142582
Comments: 26
Kudos: 152





	1. those who mourn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> It's been a while! I'm so excited for this story to finally be out. It's got more action which I wish I had included in the first book, plus all the magic and royal family drama I loved writing the first time around.
> 
> Enjoy!

Most nights, Fundy dreams of when he lit the L’Manburg flag on fire. Tonight is no exception. All over again, he feels the stinging burns and the anger from the people he once called family. It’s too hot, and it hurts so much. When he finally wakes up, it’s just as hard to catch his breath as it was in his dream, only now there isn’t smoke filling his lungs. 

He reaches over and turns on the light by his bed because sitting in the dark bedroom feels a little too similar to sitting under the stars surrounded by the remnants of the flag. Something drifts in front of his face, and for a moment he thinks it’s ash, so he rubs his eyes until he sees swirling color before opening them again. Another floats by and he catches it in the palm of his hand. It’s a snowflake, and more are swirling all around him. He wonders if he left the window open before bed, but it’s shut tight and latched. Besides, it’s May. 

For a moment more, he watches the snowflakes gently falling around him, landing on his eyelashes and ears and the tip of his nose. Fundy always liked watching the snow fall. It was much more peaceful than the rain which drummed so loudly on the windows. He doesn’t remember much of his mom, but he remembers when she dropped him off at Aunt Niki’s house. He was homesick a lot the first few nights, and Niki would stay up with him to watch the snow fall. They didn’t get much of it that far south, she said, so it must have been made special by the gods, just for him. 

He finally feels calm again, that memory wrapped around him like a warm blanket, so he stands and makes his way to Niki’s room. The floor feels oddly slick below him, so he turns to shine his lantern behind him. It reflects off of a trail of ice in the shape of his paw prints, leading from his bedroom to where he is now. His sleep-addled brain can’t even begin to process what that means, so he just walks faster to her room. 

After Phil kicked him out, Fundy went back to Niki, and she took him home. He had thought she would never forgive him for everything he did while he was spying on Schlatt, but she had, before he even finished saying the words “I’m sorry.” 

Thankfully, their old home was far enough from the center of L’Manberg that it survived what happened on December 16th. She and Fundy cleared the dust and cobwebs and tried to make it feel like it did before everything happened. They both went back to sleeping in their original bedrooms on the second floor, even though the ones on the third floor were nicer and newer. Maybe they’re still waiting for the day Tommy and Tubbo come home. Either way, it means he doesn’t have to walk far to get to Niki’s room. 

He pushes the door open gently and tiptoes over to her bed. “Niki?” he whispers.

She rolls over and squints at the lantern light. “Fundy? What’s wrong?”

“I had a nightmare,” he says. Niki’s face softens, and she relaxes back onto her bed. 

“Um,” he continues, “and it was snowing in my room when I woke up.”

At that, Niki bolts upright. “It was snowing? Are you sure?”

“Yeah. And there was ice in the hallway. Kinda under my feet, like I was the one putting it there, but that’s crazy! Right?”

Niki’s brows unfurrow, and realization dawns on her face. She slips out of bed, and pulls Fundy into a hug like she would when he was little and scraped his knee. “Come on,” she says. “I’ll make you hot chocolate.”

Niki makes it the same way Wilbur did: fresh cream, chocolate shavings, cinnamon. It doesn’t taste the same, but he drinks it regardless. There’s a new layer of frost on the handle every time he touches it.

“Wil should be the one telling you this,” Niki says. “I wish he was here. But he and I owe you an explanation, so I’ll try my best. So, I think I should start by telling you that Wilbur was the prince of the kingdom he grew up in, the Antarctic Empire.” 

Fundy stifles a laugh at the mental image of his dad in a crown instead of a beanie. “Dad’s a prince?”

“Mhm. That means you’re a prince, too. But your mom didn’t want you growing up in a palace away from common people, so she and Wilbur decided that she would raise you on her own. 

“The reason you woke up with snow in your room is because the royal bloodline, Phil and all of his sons— your dad, Tommy, and Technoblade— have magic. So, the Antarctic Empire is very, very cold. Their magic protects them and makes them the strongest in the country. It let them control ice and snow. Wil hoped you wouldn’t inherit that magic, but I think you did.”

Fundy stares at Niki, the woman who raised him, who he trusts more than anyone else, and he doesn’t believe a word she’s saying. He just laughs. “What?” 

Niki gives him this sad look that makes him nervous. “We can try to find Ghostbur tomorrow, so he can answer your questions,” she suggests.

Fundy’s laughter dies and he scowls. “I don’t want to see him,” he says. Besides, Wilbur never seems to have answers for him. He could never tell him where his mom was, or when he would have time to give him his piano lessons, or why he chose to blow up the only home Fundy ever knew. Niki nods in understanding, but Fundy doesn’t think she does understand. Wilbur always seemed to have time for Niki. 

Niki sighs. “He probably wouldn’t remember, anyways.”

They sit in silence, their hot chocolate growing cold in front of them. Fundy starts to lose hope. They can’t go to Phil or Techno- Techno ran away after the Manberg v. Pogtopia War and Phil disappeared just a few days ago, probably to join him in the snowy tundra north of L’Manberg, but they don’t have Phil’s compass anymore and it’s a days-long trek. And Tommy’s still exiled thousands of blocks away, kept under Dream’s careful watch. 

The sweet drink in Fundy’s mouth turns bitter. 

It’s almost like his bio family is cursed. For as long as Fundy’s known them, they’ve all been separated to some degree, and tragedy seems to follow them. For a moment, it’s all too much and Fundy feels so tired. As much as it irritates him when Wilbur says it, he is still just a child, and all he wants is to grow up without the constant threat of war hanging over all their heads. 

Niki stands up suddenly and gestures for him to do the same. “I have an idea about how Wilbur can teach you. The real Wilbur,” she says. “Come on.”

They find Karl feeding the alpacas in Party Island. 

“Hi Karl!” Niki calls. Fundy stands behind her. He’s in human form so he can wear gloves and shoes. He’s still freaking out and leaving ice every time he touches something, so Niki dug out some of Wilbur’s old stuff that she kept in the attic for him to wear. The shoes don’t protect him perfectly, and frost peppers the grass behind him, but the gloves work wonders at stopping him from leaving frost behind. If Karl notices Fundy’s odd attire, he doesn’t say anything, just smiles and waves at the pair. 

“Hey guys,” he says. “What’s up?”

“Can we talk somewhere private?” Niki asks. “I have a favor to ask.”

He agrees and leads them back to his bamboo house. He rambles to Niki the whole way, something about a beach and buried treasure. Fundy isn’t listening.

“So, what’s that favor you wanted to ask about?” he asks, once they’re behind closed doors.

Niki bites her lip, mulling over her words. She looks up at Karl after a moment and says, “I need you to go with Fundy to the past.”

“What?” Karl and Fundy ask at the same time.

“Karl, Wilbur had magic and Fundy inherited it. He needs to be taught how to control it, but Ghostbur can’t help, and we can’t get to Phil, Techno, or Tommy. Wilbur is the only one who can help him. The real Wilbur.”

Karl shakes his head. He clutches his hands right over the center of the swirl on his sweatshirt. “I can’t, Niki. It would mess with the timeline, and that could cause catastrophic anomalies.”

“But if you send him all the way back to when Wilbur was ten, Fundy could befriend Wilbur and watch Phil teach him how to use his powers. They wouldn’t know Fundy yet and it wouldn’t change anything.”

Karl goes quiet, fiddling with the sleeves of his sweater. He pulls them over his hands, fiddles with the ridges of the cuff, twists and untwists. “Fundy, you can shift all the way into a fox, right?”

Fundy nods. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“If we go back to when Wilbur was a kid, you would have to stay a fox the whole time which would be about a week. If you get him to take you back to the palace, then you could see him learn to use his powers. There should be lots of wild foxes in the Antarctic Empire, so hopefully Wilbur would never make the connection, and you won’t be able to accidentally say anything you shouldn’t. It’s the only way I can see the timeline staying intact.”

Fundy looks to Niki, but she looks back at him with practiced neutrality. It’s a look that tells him this is his decision to make.

“I’ll do it,” he says.

An old book materializes in Karl’s hand, worn leather creaking when he opens it. A quill appears in his hand, not quite touching the paper. “Are you ready?”

Fundy draws in a shaky breath. He looks down at his hands, hidden in thick mittens. They tingle with uncontrolled magic. “I’m ready,” he says. 

“I’ll be right here when you get back,” Niki says. She gives him a quick hug, then steps back next to Karl. 

She looks to Karl, and he puts the quill on the page. 

“ _Once upon a time_ …”

Unsurprisingly, the Antarctic Empire is covered in ice and snow. Fundy stumbles when he arrives, his feet slipping on the icy ground. Karl rights him, and together they look around. Fundy finds himself at the edge of a forest, and a good distance away is the palace. Fundy had heard stories of it from Wilbur and Tommy and Tubbo (though they told the stories as if they were commoners who had seen the castle once or twice), but the mental image he had pales in comparison to the real thing. Wind whips through the trees, and a clump of snow falls off of a tree. It lands on his head and he yelps. 

“Who’s there?” a small voice asks.

Karl hurriedly backs away into the woods, pulling up the hood of his jacket as he goes. His clothes look different than they did back home; his sneakers are replaced with winter boots and his sweatshirt is covered by a lilac coat with a fur-lined hood. Changing clothes to fit the time and location must be part of his power.

The person from before is still making their way towards him, so Fundy quickly shifts into a fox. He shakes like a dog to try and get settled in his new skin. He almost never fully shifts, choosing to stay in the form in between his hybrid-looking self— mostly human but with sharp fangs and fox ears— and the fully fox one. The in-between is the best of both worlds: the senses, speed, claws and fur of a fox and the ability to speak and be bipedal like a human.

The stranger emerges from a different part of the forest while he’s still getting used to his new form. A child, by the looks of it. They creep closer, and Fundy gets a good look at them. Dark curls with a small silver crown resting on top, brown eyes behind thick glasses, and a blue sweater with a sun stitched on the front. It must be Wilbur.

As Wilbur gets close, Fundy decides to put the acting skills he hasn’t used since Schlatt was president to the test. He flattens his ears back and whines softly, keeping one paw off the ground, curled up.

And it works. 

“Oh no,” Wilbur whispers. “You’re hurt. I’ll take you home and my dad can make it all better.” He reaches forward with no tact, and Fundy fights every instinct in him that says to run. He hobbles back on three legs, slipping on pine needles and snow, and falls onto his side. Wilbur grabs him while he’s down and cradles him like a baby. He wiggles a little to not be suspicious but not enough to get out of Wilbur’s weak grasp. Thankfully his powers are dampened in this form, overridden by shapeshifter magic; he doesn’t want to hurt Wilbur or anyone else. Wilbur starts back towards the palace, holding Fundy with gentleness he wouldn’t expect from a ten year old. 

“I’m Technoblade,” he says. Oh. So, not Wilbur. Fundy always forgets Wilbur and Techno were once identical twins. “I think I should give you a name,” Techno continues. “Something cool. Like Edward. No, no, how about Crow? Because I found you next to a crowberry bush.”

Fundy barks. He means it as a no, but Technoblade takes it as a yes. “Okay, Crow,” he says. “I hope my dad lets me keep you. Wilbur’s been sad since he got his powers so maybe having a pet in the palace would make him feel better.” Techno falls silent, mouth downturned. 

It’s weird to hear him sound so caring. Every time Fundy has talked with Techno in the past (future?), he’s been cold. Every interaction is a transaction, an exchanging of favors and debts. Techno was never his uncle. He was never really family the way Wilbur and Tommy and Tubbo were.

Techno carries Fundy through the big front gates of the palace and into a huge room full of long tables. A fire roars in a tall fireplace at one end, a portrait of the royal family above it. At the other end, a raised platform holds another table, four ornate, cushioned chairs behind it. Wilbur walks in as Techno is setting Fundy down on one of the long tables. The only way Fundy can tell them apart is the shape of their glasses; Wilbur’s are more round. When Wilbur pulls his hands out of his pockets to wave at Techno, Fundy sees that he also has on cotton gloves. He wonders if he’s wearing them for the same reason Niki made him put on mittens before they left the house.

“Can you get Dad?” Techno asks. “I found this fox by the forest, and I think it’s hurt.”

“But Dad always says we shouldn’t touch wild animals,” Wilbur says. 

Techno rolls his eyes. “Please?”

Wilbur shrugs and stalks off. He slouches, his shoulders curled in. It’s hard for Fundy to reconcile the sad ten-year-old prince with the leader and general he will be in a decade.

While they wait, Fundy takes the time to really study the portrait hung above the fireplace. Phil sits in the middle on a throne made of gold and royal blue velvet with baby Tommy on his lap. Techno stands on one side and Wilbur on the other. They’re not smiling, aside from Tommy, and when Fundy looks into Phil’s icy blue eyes, he doesn’t see his Grandpa who took him in after his dad’s death, he sees the man who killed his own son in cold blood. 

When Phil walks in with Wilbur, Fundy almost doesn’t recognize him without his black wings. He looks a lot less intimidating this way, but it doesn’t stop Fundy from cowering when Phil approaches the table. 

Phil raises an eyebrow at the scared fox and turns to Techno. “What’s this?”

Techno steps in front of the table, blocking his dad from Fundy. “I found him outside. He’s hurt, Dad, I couldn’t just leave him.”

Phil sighs. “Alright, let me see.” Techno steps aside, and Phil slowly lowers himself into a chair at the table so he can get a closer look. He gently takes the paw Fundy’s been holding up and inspects it. Fundy squeaks when Phil tries to extend his leg, and Phil tsks. “It’s probably just a sprain,” he tells his sons. 

“Can he stay with us until he’s better?” Techno asks. 

“I suppose,” Phil says. “But you’ll be responsible for it, which means you have to bathe it, feed it, clean up after it, and make sure Tommy doesn’t get hurt or accidentally hurt it.”

Techno nods frantically. Phil ruffles his hair. “I’m proud of you for wanting to help it. Now, I have to go to a meeting, but it shouldn’t be more than an hour and then we can work on your magic, Wilbur.”

Wilbur smiles for half a second. Phil squeezes his shoulder as he passes.

“Bye, Dad,” Wilbur and Techno chorus. 

Techno picks Fundy up and cradles him to his chest. “Wanna help me give Crow a bath?”

Wilbur blinks at him. “Crow?”

Techno nods to the fox in his arms.

“Dad’s not gonna like that you named it.”

Techno shrugs. “What Dad doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

Wilbur holds Fundy up while Techno dumps cups of warm water over him which is rather unpleasant, since Wilbur had to take off his gloves and his hands are really cold, and the palace air isn’t much warmer. But Wilbur hums to him the whole time, and if Fundy closes his eyes, he’s back in his childhood bedroom at Niki’s house and his dad is putting him to bed. Soon enough it’s over and Fundy’s wrapped in a warm, soft towel. He’s pretty sure the last shreds of his dignity washed down the drain alongside the dirt and lukewarm water, but it’s fine. He’ll just never speak a word of this to anyone.

Soon, the hour is up and Techno and Wilbur clip on capes and step into boots. They make their way outside to a small courtyard where snow golems are milling about. Techno still has Fundy in his arms, swaddled like a baby. One golem comes over to Techno, pushing into him. Its empty coal eyes stare into Fundy’s. Techno steps to the side and it glides past, its eyes trained on Fundy all the while. 

Phil joins them a minute later. He conjures up a chair off to the side for Techno, who sits and wraps his thick cloak around himself and Fundy. He holds a book open in his right hand while the other pets soft fox fur.

“Alright, Wil,” Phil says. He stands at one end of the courtyard, Wilbur at the other. “Remember what I told you last time. Feel the magic in your soul, and let it flow into the rest of your body.”

Wilbur closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He takes off his gloves and lets them fall to the snow. His hands flex, fists clenching and unclenching.

“Now,” says Phil, “open the dam.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins! The last story, though I like how it stands on its own, is definitely meant to be a prequel to this one. And I'm so happy it was revealed in the Tales From the SMP that Karl is a time traveler. I jumped on the "the timeline is changing because of Karl" train and it ended up being the last piece that had to fall into place for this chapter to be complete.  
> I'm back at uni now so I won't have long blocks of uninterrupted time to write like I did over break, and this story will definitely have a slower update schedule. However, I'm going home to house sit in two weeks so I plan on writing a lot of this then.  
> See you next week for chapter 2!


	2. will be comforted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> Chapter 2 took a bit longer than I’d hoped. But that’s life! I’m just glad I finished it. Just one step closer to the Big Plot stuff. :)
> 
> Also just a heads up, there’s discussions of grief at the end. It’s nothing bad but I know it can be a lot for some people, myself included. 
> 
> Enjoy!

“Now open the dam.”

Wilbur breathes out, and the snow under his feet turns to slick ice that starts to spread out over the courtyard. Phil stomps his foot when the ice gets close to Techno’s chair, and it stops like it hit an invisible barrier.

“Good,” Phil says. “Now try and do something with that energy. Try raising the ice up.”

Wilbur furrows his brows. The ice creaks and groans, and cracks start to form. The ground heaves and splits into two shelves of ice, throwing Wilbur off balance. He falls and lands on his back. Techno’s hand stills on Fundy’s head. Everything goes still and quiet, and Fundy wonders what they’re waiting for.

Wilbur rolls over and props himself up on his elbows. His head drops to his chest and he slams his fist into the ground. Techno flinches. Fundy never could have imagined Technoblade flinching at anything.

Phil goes to help Wilbur up, but he pushes his dad’s offered hand away and struggles to his feet on his own. He grabs his gloves and looks right at his dad as he puts them on. Without another word, he stalks inside, leaving Phil with just Techno and Fundy. Phil sighs. He waves his hand and the broken ice melts back into fluffy snow.

A second chair appears next to Techno’s, and Phil plops down in it. “What are you reading?” he asks Techno.

Techno shrugs and shows his dad the cover.  _ The Village that Went Mad.  _

“Was this in our library? I don’t recognize it.”

Techno nods. He sticks a bookmark in it and flips back to the front of the book. Fundy settles against Techno’s stomach so he can see, too. “I think Tommy got to it,” Techno says. “The author page is ripped out.”

Phil shakes his head but there’s a smile on his face. “Speaking of your brother, how about we let his nanny go home and I’ll read you two some stories?”

Techno nods. He shifts so that Fundy’s head and front paws are hooked over his shoulder and he can hold his book with one hand while keeping his arm around Fundy’s back. As they walk inside, Fundy watches the chairs get blown away in the strong wind, snow as light and puffy as if it had just fallen.

Tommy is just as energetic as a four year old as he was as a teenager, and Phil has to scoop him up quickly to avoid him bowling over Techno to get to the fox in his arms. 

“Tommy,” Phil says, “we’re only taking care of this fox until it’s all better and then it has to go home to its family. It’s still a wild animal, not a pet, and you have to be careful around it. Okay?”

Tommy pouts. “Okay.”

When Phil leaves Techno and Tommy in the solar to go make tea, Techno leans down and whispers to Tommy, “I named him Crow.” Tommy gapes, eyes sparkling. Techno mimes locking his lips and throwing away the key. Tommy beams at him.

Memories of Tommy and Techno screaming at each other in L’Manberg before Techno attacked them with withers echo in Fundy’s mind. How did this family fall so far apart?

Phil comes back with three tea cups on a tray and a book of tales tucked under his arm. Techno sets Fundy down on a chair facing the fire, and then he helps Tommy up into the window seat. He joins his baby brother and throws a blanket over both of their laps. While they’re all distracted with Phil’s stories, Fundy quietly hops down off the chair and creeps out of the room. He walks the hallways, sticking to shadowy corners whenever a person comes near, until he finds Wilbur’s room. Quiet singing led Fundy right to him.

He pushes the door open with his snout and trots in. It’s a spacious room, bigger than any bedroom in Niki’s house and absolutely giant compared to their rooms in the camarvan. 

Wilbur is sitting on his bed, scratching away at paper with a quill. Fundy hops up and curls up against Wilbur’s side. Wilbur goes to pet him, but apparently thinks better of it and quickly retracts his gloved hands. He sighs shakily. Frustrated tears are gathering in his eyes and he quickly wipes them away with his sleeve.

“I don’t want these stupid powers,” he mumbles, maybe to himself and maybe to Fundy. Fundy presses the top of his head into the underside of Wilbur’s chin and starts purring. Wilbur takes in a deep breath and rests more of his weight on Fundy. He keeps writing, humming as he goes, and the tune sounds oddly familiar. A distant memory, untouchable. It’s still soothing. 

When the sun has gone down and Techno knocks on Wilbur’s door to see if he’d seen Crow anywhere, he finds his twin asleep, the fox curled up at his side. 

Fundy sticks to Wilbur’s side through the night and into the next morning. At the breakfast table, a bowl of raw fish and wild berries is placed right next to Wilbur’s chair for him. Techno spends most of breakfast monologuing to his family about the diet of a fox, and it seems like he knows more than Fundy does. He can tolerate human food just fine, and honestly cooked meat tastes better than raw in his opinion, so Niki just fed him the way anyone would feed a little boy. If he remembers right, his mom gave him more of a mix of both, but by the time he was old enough to understand and speak up about it, he had started to associate Sally with feelings he didn’t want to feel and he didn’t want to talk about her with anyone, even Wilbur.

Tommy eventually gets bored of Techno’s rambling and starts throwing cereal, and breakfast is brought to a close. Wilbur and Techno have lessons, so Fundy is placed in an unused bedroom with some dog toys and a bowl of water. As soon as the hallways fall silent, he uses his front paws to flip the lock on the door. He figures he has a few hours until lunch, and there’s no way he’s sitting bored in there for that long. He slips out a back entrance and bounds down the fields towards the forest he and Karl first arrived in. He hopes to find Karl somewhere, so he starts in the direction Karl disappeared in. The forest gets dark and mobs rattle and hiss and groan, but they pay him no mind, so he treks on. He finds a path eventually, made of broken and snow-covered cobblestone, and he follows it into a village. An abandoned village, by the looks of it. All of the houses’ windows are yellowed and cobwebs hang in every corner. 

One house in the village has a chimney billowing smoke, so Fundy heads there. He shifts back into his usual form and has to take a moment to get used to bipedal walking again. Mobs quickly take notice of him, as they do with any vaguely human-shaped entity, so he hurries toward the house. The door falls open when he leans against it to listen in, so he pushes in and shuts it tight behind him. 

This house looks just as bad on the inside as the outside did. On his left are a stove, sink, and ice box, a table and chairs are straight ahead, and a fireplace crackles to his right. Half-melted candles are in every window, dust covering each one, dripping wax onto warped wood floors. The only signs of life are a leather-bound book on the table and a lilac winter coat draped over the only chair in the room. 

“Karl?” he calls. 

“Who’s there?” Karl yells from upstairs. 

Fundy starts towards the rickety staircase in the back left corner. “It’s Fundy!”

Karl appears at the landing. He’s wearing a green sweater, with his signature purple swirl in the middle, and pajama pants. “Hi, Fundy!” Karl says. “How is your… was it… um- how’s it going?”

“Good!” Fundy says. “I’ve learned a lot already.” 

Karl gestures for him to come upstairs, and he does so hesitantly. The stairs creak and bend under his feet. Lit torches line the upstairs hallway letting him see three doors, one on his side and two on the other. The door on his side is open and he can see a small bathroom inside. Karl had wiped away some of the grime on the mirror, but it still looks awfully dusty.

Karl leads him to one of the other two doors and holds it open for Fundy. Inside is a narrow bunk bed pushed against one wall and a rusty chest under the window on the other wall. The closet door is open, showing off Karl’s winter boots and multicolored sweatshirt. 

Karl sits on the bottom bunk, and Fundy drags over the empty chest to use as a stool. “What have you been doing here?” Fundy asks.

Karl shrugs. “Writing. It’s quiet here; I like it. But I want to hear about what you’ve been doing. Are you ready to go home yet?”

Fundy looks down at the mittens he still has on. He shakes his head. “Not yet. I still want to be here for a few more days. Grandpa teaches Wilbur how to use his powers every afternoon, and I got to watch yesterday but it was cut short.”

Karl nods. “You should probably get back, then. You don’t have to check in every day, just come when you’re sure you’re not going to be seen leaving.”

Fundy agrees, and Karl walks him to the door. He turns back into a fox and runs back to the palace, through empty fields and between big greenhouses bustling with farmers. He makes it back into the room with just minutes to spare til noon.

The afternoon drags by while Fundy waits for Wilbur’s practice. He’ll have to steal a book tomorrow. For now, he rolls a dog toy around and watches the minutes tick by. 

Techno lets him out of the bedchamber when it’s time for training. He picks Fundy up like a baby again and carries him out to the courtyard where a chair is already waiting for them. Phil stands at one end of the courtyard, Wilbur at the other. Just like yesterday.

“We’re going to try something different today,” Phil says. “I pushed you too hard yesterday, so let’s just try small-scale conjuring.”

Wilbur’s shoulders slump, and he takes his gloves off slowly, finger by finger. Phil waits patiently. Wilbur drops them unceremoniously, and they’re carried by the wind over to Techno’s chair.

“How about a snowball? Try picturing it in your head first,” Phil says. Wilbur closes his eyes and loosely cups his hands together. “Good,” Phil continues, “now think about what you need to make a snowball. Imagine what kind of snow is best for this. Imagine what shape you want it to be.”

Snow starts building up in Wilbur’s hands, slowly assembling into a sphere. The snow sparkles in the Sun. Techno cheers when the snowball is complete, and Wilbur opens his eyes. He starts to close his hands around it, but as soon as a finger brushes it, it falls apart. 

Phil sighs. “Aw, mate…”

Wilbur hands drop to his sides as his shoulder begin to creep up to his ears. Phil takes a hesitant step forward, walking on eggshells like he could stop a meltdown by moving slow. Wilbur does the opposite, launching himself into his dad’s arms and burying his face in his dad’s cloak. His shoulders shake minutely, and every breath looks like a challenge to draw in. He’s bent over, weighed down by magic stronger than he is. 

Fundy hops off of Techno’s lap and weaves his way between Wilbur’s legs. He knows what it’s like to feel a weight that heavy, failures dragging you down. He purrs, hoping the soft vibrations soothe Wilbur a least a little bit. Techno joins the embrace, laying his head on his twin’s back.

No one notices that Fundy used all four legs to get over to Wilbur. 

Fundy sneaks out that night after everyone’s asleep. He had stayed by Wilbur’s side for hours until he was able to calm down enough to rest. Fundy was buzzing with energy the whole time, thoughts going a mile a minute and tail swishing back and forth. But he waited patiently for the moon to rise high in the sky before he crept out of the room and out to the fields nearby. 

Back in his normal form, he sits on the snow (and spends a second in awe when he realizes that he isn’t freezing) and closes his eyes. In his mind, he pictures a snowball, and he cups his hands so that it can form there. It comes out lumpy and misshapen, but he did it. He feels happiness swell in his chest, bright and sunny. He wants to yell and laugh and show Niki and his dad and- oh. Now he’s homesick. 

He sits back down. His thoughts turn to things he’s been pushing away for months. It’s been hard since Wilbur left them. He’s mad at his dad, though it makes him ashamed to admit that. That doesn’t make it any less true. He’s mad at his dad, for leaving him and Niki and Tommy and Tubbo, for not being there to help Fundy with his powers, for leaving them to pick up the scattered pieces of their lives. For being selfish.

He throws the stupid snowball as far as he can. He screams his throat raw, not caring if any mobs are attracted to the sound, cursing his dad. It leaves him feeling hollowed out and withered. Lighter in a bad way. 

Fundy remembers visiting Wilbur’s grave under the L’Mantree. He set his bundle of white lilies next to an orchid that was already wilting on top of the stone. There was a tag on the orchid that read “I will always love you.” He remembers the anger that tag made him feel. Wilbur had it so good. All the unconditional love in the world, and he didn’t even know it, being lost to the unknown that comes after a final death. Fundy falls to his knees. Thick ice spreads below him. 

But then he takes a deep breath, and he remembers the peace that came with Wilbur’s burial. And the finality. And the relief of not having to see Wilbur suffer anymore. And the love and support he felt from the community by way of offers of food and ores and gentle hugs and stories of his dad. 

He tips back, landing in powdery snow. The stars twinkle above him. An owl hoots off in the distance. Sometimes he wishes he was an avian shapeshifter so he’d be able to touch the stars he used to see every night, before the Dream-SMP grew and light pollution choked them out. 

He sighs. The storm lets up. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As someone who lost a parent, I’ve really resonated with Fundy’s character, so that was really cathartic to write! On a serious note, grief is a funny thing, and everyone experiences it differently. If you’ve lost someone and you’re struggling with those feelings, don’t pull a Fundy. Find someone to talk to. No one deserves to feel like they have to bottle that kind of thing up.
> 
> Also, the choice of flowers was intentional. White lilies, when used for funerals, symbolize “the innocence that has been restored to the soul of the departed” which fits Ghostbur’s character so well. And orchids mean “I will always love you,” as the tag in the story says.
> 
> Also also did you notice the reference to the house Tommy explored in the last book? It worked out so well that I wrote about a green sweater being left behind :-)
> 
> See you next week!


	3. when tomorrow starts without me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saying goodbye to familiarity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. I expected house sitting to be easy. And then the entire country got pogged on by the weather. I've had to shovel more this week than I have in years. I hope everyone's staying safe right now. 
> 
> Anyways, sorry for the late upload. This one's super long; hopefully that makes up for it. I didn't edit this one as much as I usually do, so let me know if there are any typos or mistakes. 
> 
> Enjoy!

With the moon still high in the sky, Fundy goes back to that abandoned village to find Karl. A little familiarity would do him some good, he figures.

He doesn’t tell Karl what happened, just says there was progress but he needed a breather. So Karl talks to him all night. He explains how Niki and now Fundy are the only ones who know that Karl is a time traveler. When Karl was just getting a hang of time travel and started keeping logs of his travels, he left his journal in L’Manberg and Niki found it. He didn’t learn about the secrecy he was supposed to keep until later, and he owed her one for keeping the secret. That’s why he took Fundy to the past when she asked. No one is supposed to know, not even Sapnap; it’s a burden he’s meant to carry on his own. 

“That sounds lonely,” Fundy muses. 

Karl hums. “It isn’t. I’ve gotten to meet so many people in the past and in the future.” Karl rolls over to look at Fundy. He’s laying on his bed, Fundy sitting on the chest under the window. Karl says, “I’m going to tell you a secret, and you can’t tell anyone. Pinky promise?” 

Fundy walks over to the bed and lets Karl hook his pinky around part of Fundy’s mitten. 

Karl looks up at Fundy and whispers, “They don’t forget about us after we’re gone.”

Fundy pulls his hand out of Karl’s and sits criss cross on the floor. “Wow,” he says, but he’s not quite sure it’s a comforting thought. 

Wilbur can’t sleep. He slept for a little bit until his fox ran off, when the soft clicking of clawed feet on wood woke him. Now he’s all alone and the wind is rattling the window in a spooky way and his mind is racing. He takes a deep breath and slides out of bed. 

Techno’s bedchamber is right next to his, but the hallway seems to stretch endlessly, dark oak turned into inky black void. He sprints from the safety of his bedchamber to the safety of his brother’s. He doesn’t bother knocking; he pushes into the room and shuts the door behind him quickly. To Wilbur’s relief, Techno’s room is brighter than his own, lit by the still-burning fireplace. Techno is but a lump of blankets in the big four post bed. He sits up when the door closes and blinks bleary-eyed at Wilbur, who silently climbs into his bed and takes a blanket from the pile. Techno cocks his head at him. Wilbur rolls away.

After a tense moment of silence, Techno says, “‘Night, Wilbur.”

“Good night,” Wilbur mumbles back. Techno settles back into bed and his breathing evens out a minute later. Wilbur can still hear the wind rattling the windows, but it’s drowned out by the fire crackling. He wonders where his fox is. If he’s not in Wilbur’s room, and he’s not in Techno’s, where is he?

When Wilbur wakes up in the morning, the fox is curled up in the divet between him and Techno, sleeping like he’d been there the whole night.

Techno and Wilbur’s lessons end early that day, so they hole up in the library with a blanket, roaring fire, and a stack of books. Crow rests at their feet. Wilbur brings his guitar and starts playing through some chords from a song he’s been learning: A# A#maj7 D# D#m.

Phil finds them there late in the afternoon. He has Tommy in one arm, and the other is behind his back. “Wil, Techno, put on your boots and meet us outside,” he says. “We’re doing something a little different today.”

They stare dumbfounded at their dad as he backs out of the room, then scramble to their rooms to get their outerwear. Fundy bounds along behind them. He doesn’t bother pretending to be hurt anymore. No one seems to notice. 

The last rays of sunlight are dipping below the horizon when the family gathers outside. Phil is waiting with a backpack on, which Techno asks about. Phil mimes locking his lips and turns back to helping Tommy make a miniature snowman. When they’re done, Phil scoops up Tommy and sets him on his shoulders. “Off we go, boys!” he says, gesturing for the others to follow him. He leads them through the village and down to the docks. Their heavy boots are loud on the wood. No one’s out at this hour, and the docks are quiet and dark. The waves are calm now, lapping gently at the sides of boats. Wilbur thinks he sees a siren way out in the water, but it’s hard to tell with just the moonlight. It was probably just a fish, or a drowned. Crow leans his head over the edge and bats at the seawater. A bit of kelp sticks to his paw so he flings it around until it dislodges, and it lands on Tommy’s leg. Tommy screams until Phil takes it off, then squirms so he’s set down and can chase after the fox. Crow bends down like a dog that wants to play, and leaps to the side at the last second to dodge Tommy’s little arms.

“Be careful!” Phil calls. “Stay away from the edge!”

Tommy’s too busy chasing after Crow and laughing gleefully to acknowledge Phil, so Techno trails after him just to make sure. Phil shakes his head at them. 

Wilbur tugs on his cape. “What’s in your backpack?” he asks.

Phil leads Wilbur to the end of the dock where there aren’t any boats tied up and stops under a hanging lantern. He kneels in front of Wilbur and sets the backpack down. He hands a matchbook to Wilbur and pulls out two bundles of paper. “They’re Chinese lanterns,” he says. “This first bundle are ones that float in the sky, and the second bundle float on water. We’ll light them when Tommy’s done chasing that fox around.”

Wilbur pouts. “Do we have to wait?”

Phil nods. “Sorry, mate.” 

While they wait, they sit down with their feet dangling over the water and begin to fold the lanterns.

“Y’know, Wilbur,” Phil says, “I’m really proud of you. You’ve made a lot of progress recently.”

Wilbur kicks the wood beam supporting the dock. “Doesn’t feel like it,” he says.

“I know you’re disappointed because it seems like it’s taking longer than it should, but it took me years to learn how to do all the neat stuff I can do now. And look at how much better you’ve gotten since this summer. I heard you playing your guitar again earlier.”

Wilbur’s lantern slips out of his hand and lands on the water below. It takes on water and slips below the waves. “It’s not fair. I don’t want them, Dad. I don’t want to have to learn how to use them. Why couldn’t Techno have gotten them? I’m not going to be king, so why did I get stuck with them?”

Phil puts a hand on Wilbur’s shoulder. “Techno will get his, too, when the gods know that he’s ready,” he explains. “But Wilbur, just because you won’t be king doesn’t mean your powers are useless. You’ll find a purpose for them.”

Wilbur huffs and goes back to folding lanterns.

“Hello,” Techno says. Tommy’s on his back with his arms tight around Techno’s neck, and Crow is close to his side.

“What’s that?” Tommy asks, unhooking an arm to point to the lanterns piled around them. His cheeks are bright red from laughing so hard. 

“Chinese lanterns,” Phil says. He holds one of the finished ones up for them to see. “These ones we’ll let go into the sky, and the ones Wil has will float on the water. Now, boys, the fuel has to be on fire for them to float, so we’ll be very careful, yes?”

They all nod. Phil picks up the matchbox and the first lantern, a red one. “Wilbur, since you’ve been my helper, why don’t you go first?”

Wilbur sets down the blue water lantern he was folding and takes the red one from his dad. Phil shows him where to hold it and then he lights the match. The fuel cell catches, and a moment later, the lantern begins to rise up. Wilbur lets go of it, and they all watch as it floats away. The breeze carries it out to sea, and it keeps growing smaller until it’s just one of the stars overhead.

“I want to go next!” Tommy says. Techno lets him down, and he runs over to Phil. He takes a green one from the pile and holds it where Wilbur did. Phil helps him keep it steady while he lights it, and he has to pry his son’s little fingers off the lantern when it's ready, so mesmerized he is with the glowing lantern. Techno has his turn next, picking a yellow one. It gets caught in an updraft and joins the red one high up in the heavens.

Wilbur sits back down on the deck and keeps folding the water lanterns. Crow bumps into him, which Wilbur ignores. Then Crow puts a paw on Wilbur’s arm, which makes him look up. Crow has a lantern held gently between his teeth. It’s one of the sky ones, bright red like the first one he let go.

“Dad?” asks Wilbur. “I think he wants a lantern.”

Phil turns his gaze away from the sky to look at his son and the fox, sitting there with the lantern in his mouth. “Well. I guess he can have one.”

Wilbur holds the lantern while Phil lights it, Crow sitting at their feet. Crow watches silently as it floats away. The flickering light reflects in his big eyes, and he almost looks sad. Wilbur pets his head, and his eyes slip closed. He purrs like a cat. It’s kinda cute. 

Techno and Tommy release the rest of the sky lanterns while Wilbur unfolds the last few water lanterns. He watches the lanterns float above them and listens to Tommy’s boisterous laughter. One starts to fall close to the water, so he gently lifts it back up to join the others.

He’s having a really good day. First, he got to learn about geography, which is his favorite subject, and then he got to play his guitar, and now they get to see these cool lanterns. Wilbur finishes folding the last lantern, and he sets it down on his lap. He pauses a moment before he'll get up to join the rest of his family. The gentle sea breeze ruffles his hair, but otherwise he’s as still as a statue. He lets out the breath he accidentally started holding, and an intricate, geometric pattern of frost shoots up the lantern, spreading from where his hands are holding the paper.

“Woah!” Phil says, making Wilbur jump. “That’s great, Wil! Good job!” Phil reaches down and ruffles his hair, and his cheeks start to feel warm. He didn’t think anyone was watching.

Techno sits down on the dock next to him and takes the lantern to inspect it. Crow comes up behind them and sets his head on top of Wilbur’s. “How’d you do that?” Techno asks.

Wilbur shrugs. “I was just… happy, and my hands got kinda tingly.”

Techno hands him back the lantern. “Hopefully I get my powers soon. Then we can train together.”

“Yeah,” Wilbur says. His gaze is fixed on the sea. “Hopefully.”

They get back to the palace late. The village is as quiet as a ghost town. The only signs of life are the snow golems gliding around. Wilbur is so tired, but he’s determined not to go to bed just yet. He has a plan. He pretends to fall asleep quickly, purposely evening out his breaths and going as limp as he can. Just as he suspected, Crow hops off his bed and leaves the room not much later. Wilbur counts to thirty and slips out of bed. He shoves his feet into his boots and quietly opens his door just as Crow is disappearing out the side entrance. Wilbur follows him out. He goes slow, hoping not to be too loud on the snow. It’s hard to see without a lantern, so he just ignores his surroundings and follows the paw prints into the woods. He loses Crow for a moment, and the mobs sound like they’re getting closer, so he goes a little faster, not worrying about the noise.

He breaks through the foliage onto an old road and finds Crow sitting there. Crow starts looking around, so Wilbur ducks back into the bushes. And then, before Wilbur’s eyes, Crow grows into a human boy, probably just a few years older than he. 

Wilbur steps out onto the road. “Crow?”

Crow— or whoever it is— freezes. He turns slowly to face Wilbur. He really is just a boy, in black pants and a sweatshirt. Fox ears poke out on either side of the hat he’s wearing, which is the only indication Wilbur has that what he just saw wasn’t some weird trick of the light. 

“You’re a person?” Wilbur asks. 

“Um,” Fundy says. He starts backing away from Wilbur. Snow begins to fall on them, no doubt Wilbur’s doing.

“Wait!” Wilbur cries. “Don’t leave.”

Fundy turns and runs through the village until he finds Karl’s house. Fundy doesn’t think Wilbur followed him, but he blows out every candle that can be seen from the windows, just in case. 

“Karl!” he yells. His voice is high in panic.

Karl appears at the top of the stairs in his pajamas, his eyes only half-open. “What’s wrong?”

“We have to go. Now,” Fundy says.

Karl’s expression turns to worry, which doesn’t make Fundy feel any better. “What happened?”

“Wilbur followed me out. He saw me shift.”

Karl mutters one of his funny swears under his breath and disappears for a moment. He comes back in his sweatshirt and jeans with a book in his arms. He takes the stairs two at a time and grabs Fundy’s arm to lead him over to the table. He grabs the rest of the books off the table and quickly scribbles something in the one he brought from upstairs, the one with a swirl on the front. The world starts fading. The last thing Fundy sees is a blizzard raging on the other side of the window. 

The L’Manberg Fundy finds himself in is not the one he left. For a moment, he thinks he's still in the past, because snow assaults him and Karl from all sides and covers the ground they appear on. But the buildings around him are very much from L'Manberg. But what's odd is that L’Manberg is intact, not a messy field of dammed ponds and half-destroyed buildings. 

Karl is the first to snap out of it. He pulls up the hood of his sweatshirt to keep a bit of the snow off and leans closer to Fundy to be heard. He points up at a bare hill, the one the White House used to be on. “Who’s that?” he asks, raising his voice over the howling wind. 

Fundy follows his gaze to someone standing up there. Sharp spikes stand in their windblown hair, and a cape snaps behind them. Their military-esque stance reminds Fundy of Wilbur.

The person steps into the light of the swinging lanterns, and it _is_ Wilbur. Not Ghostbur, actually alive Wilbur. He looks different, though. He’s wearing a dark blue sweater that has a Sun embossed in the center, and the spikes in his hair are the points of a silver crown that glitters with diamonds and lapis. His long cape billows when he raises his arms. He smiles the same disturbing, manic way he did when he lost himself in Pogtopia. Over Fundy’s heartbeat roaring in his ears, he hears his dad yell, “Welcome home, son!”

Wilbur gestures to someone behind Fundy. A hand grabs his shoulder, hard, and he yelps. Karl does, too. Punz twists Fundy’s arms behind his back and holds his wrists with an iron grip. Sapnap does the same for Karl. As they’re dragged away, Wilbur watches with a cold stare and a smile. 

“Please, Sapnap, you know me,” Karl begs, trying to twist out of Sapnap’s grip. “I’m your fiancé, Karl, remember? Please let us go. We didn’t do anything!”

Sapnap stays silent. When they pass under a lamppost, the lantern light shines on his netherite armor, showing off the Sun right over his heart. 

They’re taken to what should be Eret’s castle. Antarctic Empire flags hang in the windows that should hold pride flags, and guards stand in every lookout. Once inside, Sapnap and Punz lead them to what must be the throne room. Wilbur sits on one throne, Niki in the other. Her hair is pink instead of black and white, and there’s a silver circlet resting on top. When she raises her head, the diamonds and lapis in the circlet gleam. Wilbur and Niki look like the parents Fundy once had, a unified front against every bad thing that might happen to their son. Fundy is reminded of long nights filled with nightmares, his parents sitting on the end of his bed with their guitars. But the difference now is that the look in their eyes as they regard their son is something from those long-forgotten nightmares. There’s no love in them. 

“Dad? Niki? What’s going on?” he asks. 

“I think we should be asking you that,” Wilbur says. “You’re trespassing on Antarctic Empire land.”

Fundy sees Karl in the corner of his eye. Sapnap has handcuffed him, and his bound hands are shaking. He mouths ‘Antarctic Empire’ to himself, brows furrowed.

“This isn’t L’Manberg?” Fundy asks.

Wilbur scoffs. “No, you’re not in Manberg. You missed that border by about 2,000 blocks. What, did Schlatt decide he needs his little spy back?”

“I’m- huh?” Fundy looks to Niki for help. She doesn’t look confused, despite all the nonsensical things Wilbur just said. Fundy tries to back away from the imposters playing his parents, but Punz keeps a tight grip on his wrists. 

Wilbur sighs. “Fundy, I tried to let you off easy by sending you into exile, but clearly that didn’t work. Punishment for crimes of your magnitude is execution.” He pauses and studies his son. Niki sets a hand on his arm and they have a private conversation without words. “However, no one deserves to lose their life so young, traitor or not. Punz, Sapnap, take him to Pandora’s Vault. Karl, too.”

“No!” Karl cries. Fundy starts getting scared, too. In the right timeline, the prison had just been finished. It was Sam’s pride and joy, and Fundy had no doubt in his mind that Sam wasn’t lying when he said that no one _ever_ leaves Pandora’s Vault. 

Punz starts dragging Fundy away. He tries to scratch at Punz’s arm with his claws, but his armor is impenetrable. Fundy’s body buzzes with magic. He’s sure the temperature in the room has dropped about ten degrees. And then he remembers what Phil taught Wilbur, almost twenty years ago. Fundy digs his heels in, and he opens the dam. Icicles rise from the floor around him, and Punz is forced to let go or get stabbed. An axe forms in Fundy’s open hand. He swings it around and points the blade at Punz. “Let us go.”

Punz drops his sword and raises his empty hands above his head. Wilbur stands, fists balled, but he doesn’t approach. Fundy notes with twisted relief that Wilbur isn’t wearing armor. Some things never change. He doesn’t seem to have a weapon on him either, and he could form one from ice like Fundy did, but that would take precious time. Fundy clearly has the advantage. 

“Punz, grab him!” Wilbur yells.

Punz shakes his head. “Sorry, Wilbur, but you don’t pay me enough for this.”

Fundy lowers the ice barrier around him and runs for the door. Sapnap is struggling to hold it open and push Karl through it at the same time.

There’s a fizz and a bang, and the door explodes inward. Sapnap and Karl are thrown to the ground and Fundy stumbles back, shielding himself from the splinters that rain down. Tubbo stands in the aftermath, a firework in one hand and a dying match in the other. Tommy waits behind him with a loaded crossbow. Eret is there too, along with Phil and Techno and Jack Manifold. They all have bandanas tied around their necks. Green for Tommy, red for Tubbo, purple for Eret, white for Phil, pink for Techno, blue for Jack. 

“Hey, Fundy,” says Eret.

“Let’s go home, kiddo,” says Phil.

Wilbur seems to finally come to his senses, and he conjures up a sword. Tommy gives him a passing glance and shoots him in the shoulder. “Sorry, Wil,” he says when his older brother cries out in pain. “That’s gotta hurt. I would know.” He doesn’t look sorry. Tommy points his crossbow at Niki next. She puts her hands up, but she looks pissed. Fundy has never seen her look this mad before.

“Go ahead. Take him,” Wilbur says. The hand clasped around the arrow in his shoulder is stained red, and he’s leaning heavily on his throne. “I’m still going to win this war. My son won’t change that.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure,” Phil says. 

Wilbur’s smile slips. “Leave. I got what I really wanted.” And that’s when Fundy notices that Sapnap and Karl are gone. 

“Come on,” Eret says, pulling Fundy away. 

Fundy tries to shake his grip. “Wait, but-”

“Later,” Techno says. “Let’s go.” 

Fundy goes, reluctantly at first, trailing behind everyone. His limbs burn with exhaustion, but he doesn’t stop, and he doesn’t look back. 

Inside the palace, Wilbur slumps down into his throne while Niki goes over to inspect the blast site. 

“This little rebellion is starting to be an issue,” Wilbur says. 

“We’ll handle them,” Niki says, her eyes trained on the broken door. “We always do.”

Wilbur sighs. “At least we have the time traveler. I just hope his failing memory doesn’t screw us over.” 

Karl wakes up to heat. Boiling, searing, molten. And light, bright orange against his eyelids. His head pounds, and it gets even worse when he opens his eyes. He rolls away from the orange wall and instead faces unlit obsidian. It clicks then, where he is. Pandora’s Vault. The inescapable prison. 

He remembers a book he found in his own handwriting, in the Inbetween. It told the story of the first prisoner. Dream. As the diary entry read, Karl himself never went to visit Dream, but Sapnap did, and he came back home with tears in his eyes. He had a nightmare that night of being trapped in there, and when Karl woke him, he described to him everything inside there in painful detail. It sounded horrific. 

Karl sits up, the back of his prison jumper turning hot from the lava wall. He needs to write in his journal before he forgets— he can feel the memories slipping already— but it’s nowhere to be seen. There’s nothing in his cell but a clock and a small chest.

Sapnap was right. It is horrific.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All hail King Wilbur and Queen Niki. What a duo. 
> 
> Not gonna lie, I've been sitting on the second half of this chapter for weeks. Fundy finding L'Manberg all fucked up was the first scene I ever wrote for this story, and I'm so happy I got to use it. I also had a lot of fun writing about the lanterns. I remember watching Fundy's stream where Wilbur explains that he and Phil used to make them, and thinking 'this would be so fun to write.' And it was! 
> 
> The next chapter will explain how and why the timeline's messed up now, which I'm super excited to write. See you then!


	4. wilbur's interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A blast from the past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> Here's a short little interlude while I work on the next chapter.
> 
> Enjoy!

Timeline ⍜⋏⟒.

Wilbur loved his son more than anything. Everything he did was for Fundy. Leaving home, giving up his magic, going to war, all of it was for his son. But he realizes, after his soul is barred from finding peace in the Beyond, that he did everything wrong. 

He comes back, the same and different, Wilbur adjacent, because some things died with his mortal body in the ashes of his second greatest love. His body is buried under the L’Mantree but he awakes in Pogtopia, surrounded by the fake detonators, both simple wooden buttons and weapons used to terrorize the ones he loved most. 

Fundy spends many nights checking every button to make sure they aren’t connected to anything. He’s turning out to be quite the genius when it comes to redstone. Wilbur is proud. Ghostbur just likes to watch him work, finding the repetitive motion soothing. 

Some nights, Fundy works silently, face stony. Other nights, he kicks at the wall or screams or cries so loud it echoes through the cavernous ravine. Ghostbur doesn’t much like when he’s angry or sad. He wants to find something to fix it, which is when he creates his blue. Fundy never takes the blue, though. 

On one of the bad nights, Fundy yells out for Wilbur, saying harsh things Ghostbur chooses to forget, but one thing sticks. He calls Wilbur selfish. The part of Wilbur that’s still _Wilbur_ finally gets it. Fundy’s right. In life, he was selfish. He was so unbelievably selfish when he thought that if he couldn’t have L’Manberg, no one should. 

He thinks it started when Fundy was born, and he realized he had to be selfless for his son. He missed out on so many years with his son because Sally didn’t want him to grow up in Wilbur’s home. Was she right to do that? Wilbur thought so. So he pushed away the hurt he felt because he was doing what was best for Fundy. 

And later, he dropped everything he knew to come care for Fundy when Niki asked. Now, he wouldn’t change that for the world, but he still lost his home and a big part of my family. And in starting L’Manberg he lost everything trying to make a better life for Fundy and Niki. 

In life, he didn’t let himself hurt and eventually it got to him, down in that ravine. He did a lot of things he’s not proud of down there. But that doesn’t matter, really. Because he’s dead now, and everything is wrong. Wilbur just wants to rest. Ghostbur wants to make it right. 

Timeline ⏁⍙⍜.

Wilbur’s fox is gone. Disappeared into the storm of Wilbur's creation. Wilbur searches the woods until the Sun appears at the horizon and his feet are numb from walking all night. The storm has started to calm at that point, leaving deadly sharp icicles hanging from tree branches and frost coating every window in the ghost town. The old road where it all started is buried deep in the snow.

Wilbur trudges back inside just as Techno is going to breakfast. 

Techno rubs the sleep out of his eyes. “Wilbur? Where were you?” 

Wilbur brushes past him and heads into his bedchamber without a word. He doesn’t leave it all day, not when Phil comes and knocks, not when Techno does, not when Phil brings Tommy by in an attempt to guilt-trip him.

Techno comes and knocks a second time in the afternoon. “Is Crow with you?” he asks. “I haven’t seen him today.” 

“He’s gone,” Wilbur says through the door.

Techno is quiet for a few minutes. “What did you do?”

“He’s gone, Techno. Leave me alone.”

Techno does.

Wilbur needs something to do with his hands. He can feel the magic in them, barely contained along with his emotions. He finds a bit of paper and starts folding it. He folds it, and then picks up another and folds that one, and then another, and eventually he has a big lotus water lantern. 

By the time Phil comes by with dinner, he’s sitting in a pile of lanterns. Phil knocks gently. “I brought you some food,” he says. “And I’m here if you need anything.”

Wilbur opens the door and holds one of the lanterns out to Phil. 

Phil takes in his tired eyes and the leaves in his hair and dirt on the knees of his pants. “Oh, Wil, what happened?”

Wilbur doesn’t answer. Instead he says, “I made more lanterns. Can we go to the docks?”

Phil doesn’t hide his bewilderment that well. “Uh- sure. Yeah, Wil, we can,” he says. 

“Crow ran away,” Wilbur tells Phil that night, as the last lantern touches the waves. Phil silently wraps his arm around Wilbur’s shoulders and pulls him close. 

And that’s how the lanterns become Wilbur and Phil’s thing. When Techno doesn’t talk to Wilbur for a month after their fox disappears, he has the lanterns. Phil even buys more sky lanterns, just for him. When Sally sends Wilbur a letter explaining to him how she had a son and he’s a _fox_ , he dumps a pile of lanterns on Phil’s desk and they go down to the docks. 

After Crow runs away, Wilbur’s and Techno’s relationship is never the same. Maybe it’s why he wanted to run away so bad. Maybe it’s why when a woman named Niki sent him a letter, he took the chance to finally meet his son. 

It isn’t until years later that he realizes Crow and Fundy are one and the same, and by then it’s already too late. His son is a traitor. A wanted criminal who chose to side with Manburg over his own parents.

In every timeline, Wilbur loves his son. In this one, Wilbur hates him just a little bit, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell Wilbur's my favorite member of the SMP?
> 
> See you next time for the real chapter!  
> Have a good weekend :)


	5. the diamond glints on snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the resistance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to Fundy's POV! I'm having so much fun writing him.
> 
> Enjoy!

After escaping Wilbur's palace, Fundy is led to the ravine that should be Pogtopia. He hasn’t been there since right after Wilbur’s death, many months ago. He hesitates at the spiral staircase, imagining the hundreds of buttons that were once scattered on the walls and floors. Tubbo doesn’t expect him to stop and walks into his back, nearly sending him on a painful trip down the stone steps, but Phil catches him. 

“You okay, mate?” Phil asks, quietly so the others don’t hear. 

Fundy nods mutely. Phil puts a hand on his shoulder and guides him down the staircase and over the catwalk to the other staircase. It’s brighter in the ravine than Fundy had ever seen, lanterns lit in regular intervals, illuminating a dozen rooms with wooden signs declaring them as storage rooms and people’s bedrooms, plus a forge and a kitchen and a potato farm. 

Everyone splits off from the group after giving Fundy a pat on the shoulder or an “I’m glad you’re here.” Tommy and Tubbo disappear into their shared bedroom, Eret into a storage room while carrying everyone’s weapons and armor. Jack leads Punz to the kitchen. Fundy almost hadn’t noticed Punz following them out, but it made sense that he wouldn’t stay with Wilbur. Not after Punz’s act of self-preservation, which Wilbur no doubt took as betrayal.

Techno and Phil lead Fundy to a room at the bottom of the ravine labeled “War Room,” which sounds scary but ends up just being an unfinished room with a big, oval wooden table in the middle and dirt walls covered in maps and hastily scribbled notes. 

Phil gestures for Fundy to take a seat on one side, and he and Techno sit down on the other side. “So Fundy,” Phil begins, “we’re really glad we found you, but… why are you here?”

Fundy remembers what Karl said about no one knowing about time travel, so he tries to put together the best lie he can. His dad said he had been exiled for helping Manberg, which is sorta like what really happened (but not at all), so he thinks for a moment about what Schlatt would make Fundy do, back when he was president. Burn down the flag, for one. And take down the walls, for another. But that’s really it, which is not helpful. 

And what did he do for Pogtopia? 

He spied.

“Schlatt sent me to spy on my dad,” Fundy says. 

Phil and Techno share a look, and Fundy’s stomach starts twisting into knots because it definitely isn’t a good look.

“Why was Karl with you?” Phil asks.

Fundy’s stomach twists further. “He… wasn’t! I just ran into him.” 

“You’re lying,” Techno says. He doesn’t sound mad, just kind of indifferent. 

Fundy slumps down in his seat. “I messed up the timeline,” he mumbles.

“What was that?” asks Phil.

“I messed up the timeline,” Fundy says again, a little louder. “Karl was helping me time travel, and I broke his rules and it messed up the timeline.”

Neither Phil nor Techno say anything for a while, and the silence is suffocating. 

“I’m going to go make some tea,” Phil says, “and then you have to tell us the whole story.”

It takes hours for Fundy to tell his grandfather and (estranged?) uncle the whole story. Every time he starts with one memory, they make him go back further, all the way back to when Wilbur was ten years old.

“What I don’t get is why you had to go back in time to learn about our magic,” Techno says. “Why not just ask present day Wilbur, or one of us?”

“Dad’s dead,” Fundy says, scuffing his foot back and forth on the stone floor. “And Tommy’s in exile, and you ran away—plus you hate me— and Grandpa ran away with you.”

Phil, who’s been taking notes in a half-used journal, pauses. Ink drips onto the page. “Wil’s dead?”

Fundy studies his paws so he doesn’t have to look at his Grandpa. “Mhm.” It gets quiet again, and being back in the ravine is really freaking him out, so he starts rambling to fill the silence. “But it’s okay, I guess, because he came back as a ghost, and he’s kind of annoying but Niki says he means well, although I don’t know if she really means that because she was the last to find out that he came back and she was really upset, so I think she’s just saying that to make us both feel better—”

“And the ghost of Wilbur couldn’t help you with your powers?” Techno asks, cutting off Fundy’s endless rant.

Fundy frowns. “Ghostbur doesn’t remember a lot.”

Phil clears his throat. “Maybe we should move on,” he says. “What caused the timeline to change?”

“I wasn’t supposed to shift in front of anyone so you wouldn’t recognize me later after you met me for real, but Wilbur followed me one night when I went to Karl’s house. I don’t know why that messed everything up so bad, though.”

“I do,” Techno says. “You said Wilbur told you that me and him were really close, but the way I remember it, that isn’t true. When Crow— _you_ — went missing, I thought it was Wilbur’s fault. I just assumed he had done something. I didn’t talk to him for like a month, and we stopped being as close as we were before. It must have caused some domino effect that altered history.”

“Okay. Say we fix the timeline somehow and everything goes back to the way it was,” says Phil. “What does the Empire— or L’Mangerg, you called it?— look like right now?”

“Um, well, Dad blew the town center up, so no one really lives there right now, except Ghostbur but he’s down in the sewers and we don’t see him a lot. Tubbo is president, and he’s trying to fix everything, but Dream put up big walls around the city because Tommy burnt down George’s house which meant we couldn’t get any building materials brought in, and they’re coming down now that Tommy’s exiled but they’re obsidian so it’s taking a long time. This new guy, Ranboo, just moved in, but he won’t pick a side. He’s half enderman which is cool. And Captain Puffy moved in, too. Apparently she fostered Dream when he was little, so I think someone invited her because they want her to get him to stop being so mean to everyone, but she mostly just hangs out with Niki.”

Phil doesn’t even bother writing most of that down. He sets the quill down and puts his head in his hands. “Thanks for telling us, kiddo.”

Techno leans back in his seat and turns to Phil. “We should gather the others.”

Phil goes to find everyone, leaving Fundy alone with Techno in the War Room. The silence is thick and heavy. Fundy grew up in chaos, in a big home of musicians and mischievous teenagers, so he never knew quiet. When Wilbur started to challenge Dream’s authority and had to start leaving Fundy alone more and more and the piano and guitars were left to gather dust in Niki’s house, Fundy hated it. Ironically, it got better when the war started. Their new home was full of loud people again, and it was great! Until it wasn’t, obviously. But it was still never quiet. 

It’s been quiet a lot since Wilbur died.

Fundy can hear Tommy yelling up above. His ears swivel towards the sound, and Techno’s do, too. Fundy wonders what it would have been like to grow up with Techno in the house. Tubbo’s a hybrid, too, but not in a very noticeable way like Fundy and Techno.

“You don’t like me very much,” Techno says. He doesn’t phrase it as a question.

Fundy shrugs. “You’re the only uncle I didn’t grow up with. And you weren’t very nice to us after Tubbo became president. But I wasn’t very nice to you either, so I guess we’re even.”

Techno opens and closes his mouth, clearly at a loss for words.

Phil walks back in with everyone else, and they all take seats around the table.

“So, Big T, what’s on the agenda?” Tommy asks Techno. “Don’t say debriefing.”

“We only really had to debrief with Fundy,” Phil says. “He shared some interesting news with us, which is why we need to talk to all of you.” He stands and walks over to a chalk board behind the head of the table. While he erases old battle strategies and silly notes, he explains everything to the group.

“So we need to focus on fixing the timeline more than taking down Wilbur and Niki,” Techno finishes. 

“What will happen to us when you fix it?” Tubbo asks. “Will we stop existing?”

Eret shakes their head. “I think it’s more like we’ll go back to the way we should be. Everything feels normal right now but it isn’t, according to Fundy, so when we fix the timeline, we’ll all go back to normal, too.”

Phil starts writing on the chalkboard, scribbling down new plans and goals. “Our new primary goal is rescuing Karl from the prison, since he’s the only one who can time travel.” 

“That prison’s inescapable,” Tommy says. “And Sam works for Wilbur, so there’s no way he’d help us.”

No one has anything to say to that.

“Fate,” Fundy says quietly. “She can fix it.”

“Fate’s a person?” asks Jack.

Fundy nods. “My mom would meet her a lot before she— before Niki started taking care of me.”

Phil writes ‘FATE’ in big letters on the board, and draws a line under it. “How do we find her?”

Fundy shrugs.

“So we’re back at square one,” Techno says. 

“Alright,” Phil says. “It’s been a long day. I think we should sleep on it, and we’ll come back to it in the morning.”

Everyone disperses, leaving just Phil and Fundy. “Come on,” Phil says. “We have a room ready for you.”

The room is cozy. Lanterns cast flickering shadows on the bare walls, and a bed takes up most of the space. A little chest acts as a nightstand, and a pile of blankets and an orange bandana wait for him in there.

“Welcome to the resistance,” Phil says. “We’ll figure this out; I promise. You should get some sleep.”

Fundy ties the bandana around his wrist. “Thanks, Grandpa. G’night.” 

Fundy wakes up in the early hours of the morning to commotion in the ravine. He’s up and running out of his room before he knows it. Everyone seems to be gathered at the exit that leads above ground, so that’s where Fundy heads. 

Techno has a sword pointed at someone, and the others stand in a tight circle, their own weapons drawn and raised. 

“I won’t ask again,” Phil yells. “Who are you?”

Fundy can’t see who the intruder is, so he ducks under Tommy’s and Tubbo’s arms to get a closer look. The person at the end of Techno’s sword is Ranboo, his eyes glazed over and emotionless. They’re trained on Techno, but don’t seem to really be seeing him. Suddenly, they lock onto Fundy and Ranboo seems to come to life.

“Hi Fundy!” Ranboo says, in such a normal, cheery tone that everyone, even Techno, falters. “Dream asked me to bring this to you.” He sticks his hand out towards Fundy, and everyone raises their weapons again. Fundy takes a step forward, shaking off Phil’s hand when he tries to pull him back. Ranboo drops a letter in Fundy’s hand; the envelope has a smiley face on the front. “See you later!” Ranboo says, and he disappears in a shower of purple enderparticles.

Everyone looks at Fundy. 

“I didn’t know he could teleport,” he says. 

_Fundy,_

_I can help you._

_Your old house. 10 a.m._

_My help has a price- be prepared to pay it._

_-Dream_

“I don’t know about this,” Phil says. They’re all standing in the same part of the ravine. No one would move until Fundy explained what just happened. Then they started passing the note around. It went to Phil first. He passes it to Techno. 

“Last I heard Dream ran away with George when Wilbur took control. Why would he come back now?” asks Phil.

Techno passes the note to Tommy, who huddles with Tubbo so they can read it together. 

“He must know something is wrong,” Techno says. “He always knew more than he should,” he mutters to himself. 

“I have to go,” Fundy says. “If anyone can help, it’s Dream.” 

“I’ll go with,” Tommy offers. 

“But-“ Phil starts. 

“I’m going with,” Tommy repeats, louder. Fundy remembers the brotherly arguments Wilbur and Tommy used to have after Tommy and Tubbo moved in. They usually got way louder than they needed to, for that exact reason. Tommy was good at using being loud to his advantage. 

“Isn’t your old house in the Empire?” Eret asks Fundy. They have the letter in their hands now.

“It should be,” Fundy says. “But it’s on the outskirts, right?”

Techno nods. “It is. Wilbur and Niki leave that part alone, probably for Niki’s sake.”

“It’ll be fine,” Tommy says. “We’ll just make a big circle around the part they patrol.”

“I’ll draw up the plans,” says Techno.

“And I can help,” offers Punz. 

“I’ll make breakfast,” says Jack. 

“I’ll get the armor,” says Eret.

“I’ll make invisibility pots,” says Tubbo.

“Thanks, everyone,” Phil says. “Let’s meet back up in an hour.”

After breakfast, which involves a lot of chatter and passing of plates and Techno unfurling a giant map right on top of the toast, Eret helps Fundy put on some armor while Tommy puts on his own. It’s Tubbo’s, but it’s still a little too big for Fundy. With Eret crouching in front of him, fixing the straps he struggled to tie, Fundy’s reminded of how Eret almost became his guardian. That was back when Phil cared enough to want to interview Eret before signing the papers. Fundy was sad when it fell through, but he was happy to go back to living with Niki, even if he longed for her— _anyone_ — to officially adopt him.

“ _I dub thee Prince Fundy_ ,” Eret had joked, all that time ago.

Maybe it’s a good thing that Eret didn’t adopt him. Being a prince sucks. 

He and Tommy leave right before the night guards are switched for the day guards. They’d be distracted and sleepy, Techno had reasoned. They’d never notice Tommy and Fundy, especially if they were invisible. Which they were, courtesy of the potions Tubbo brewed that morning. Snow crunched under their feet and they left obvious tracks in the snow, but nothing happened when they passed two towers, stationed by Bad and Ant respectively. They both looked half-asleep, eyes red and drooping. 

Once they were into the more hilly, woodsy part, Fundy stuck close to Tommy’s side. He was glad his uncle was with him. It had been weird, being in the past where Tommy was only a toddler. He had grown so used to Tommy’s constant presence in Dream-SMP that it felt odd without him. He always wanted to ask Tommy what it was like when it was just him and Wilbur down in Pogtopia, what it must have been like to be the only one who didn’t desert him, but he could never find the words.

They finally get to the clearing their little house is in, and it’s in even worse disrepair in this timeline. The windows are grimy and impossible to see through, the roof is sagging, and the plants in their garden have all been choked out by weeds. 

“I’ll wait here,” Tommy says, his voice somewhere near the tree line. “Tell that green bitch that he’s a pussy and he owes us.”

Fundy nods, though Tommy can’t see him, and drinks the bit of milk he brought with. He steps out into the clearing and follows the path up to his old house. Dream is waiting for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was pretty dialogue heavy. Next one shouldn't be as much. Also I wrote most of this after watching Tommy's stream, and like Tubbo I live in denial which is why I gave him a bigger part at the end lol.
> 
> I'm starting work and I'm still in school, so updates are going to keep being infrequent. Sorry.
> 
> Have a good week!


End file.
